Tarantula Feet, Silk, and Research

"Tarantulas Shoot Silk From Their Feet, Researchers Find"
FoxNews.com (May 18, 2011)

"Talk about fancy footwork!

"British researchers have discovered that adult tarantulas can climb sheer walls by shooting strands of silk from their feet -- enabling the hefty arachnids to save themselves should they risk falling from a height. Tarantulas, it turns out, are actually quite fragile.

" 'The animals are very delicate. They wouldn't survive a fall from any height,' explained Claire Rind from the University of Newcastle in the U.K. Teaming up with undergraduate Luke Birkett, Rind made the surprising discovery using three ground-dwelling Chilean rose tarantulas.

"Gently placing one of the animals in a very clean aquarium with microscope slides on the floor, the duo cautiously upended the aquarium to see if the tarantula could hang on...."

It did.

It wasn't supposed to, but it did.

Apparently folks 'knew' that tarantulas couldn't hold on to a vertical surface: but the tarantula in the tank wasn't quite so well-informed. So to speak.

Even a gentle shake didn't dislodge the outsized spider. It slipped a little, but found footing again.

Back to that article.

"...Looking at the glass by eye, Rind couldn't see anything, but when she and Birkett looked closely under a microscope, they found minute threads of silk where the spider had stood before slipping...."

Long story made short, moults - the cast-off exoskeleton of Fluffy the tarantula - and scanning electron microscopy showed tiny, reinforced, silk spigots on the spider's feet. Quite a few of them.

Which explained how Fluffy got little threads of silk tying her feet to the glass.

It's possible that not all tarantulas spin silk from their feet. But since the three species checked by the researchers all do, and aren't very closely related: it looks like foot-silk may be a 'tarantula' trait.

All of which won't help you find a shorter route to work, make your teeth whiter, or find you a successful and rewarding career. But the Lemming thinks this sort of thing is fascinating.

The Lemming also thinks it's noteworthy that these British researchers decided to see whether or not tarantulas could hold on to a vertical glass surface. Instead of reading what an 'expert' said.

And that's another topic.

Finally, if you check the tags for this post you'll find "insects," and "animals." Spiders aren't insects, but this blog has a whole lot of tags already, and I'm not going to start a new "arachnid" one.

Spiders are animals, though: although many folks who speak the same dialect of English as the Lemming mean "mammal" when they say "animal." Which has the same number of letters. And most of the same letters. It's the "i" and "n" that sets "animal" apart.

Then there are words like eukaryotic: and that is yet another topic.

Not-completely-unrelated posts:

• "Hellgrammite: A Lake, a Character, and a - Thing"
  (February 27, 2011)
• "'Terribly Hairy Fly' of Kenya: 'Like a Spider With Hairy Legs'"
  (December 11, 2010)
• "Really Big Dragonflies: Oxygen's What Does It"
  (November 3, 2010)
• "Spiders, Arachnophobia, Crabs, and a Video"
  (November 21, 2009)
• "Trilobites, Arthropods, Evolution, and Why Mothra Isn't Real"
  (October 17, 2009)

Big, "Beautiful" Fossil Ant in Tennessee

"Hummingbird-Sized Ants Once Roamed Wyoming"
Susan Milius, Science News, Wired Science, Wired (May 5, 2011)

"It's not a bird or a plane, but it is an ant the size of a hummingbird.

"A winged ant queen fossilized in 49.5-million-year-old Wyoming rock ranks as the first body of a giant ant from the Western Hemisphere, says paleoentomologist Bruce Archibald of Simon Fraser University in Burnaby, British Columbia.

"The new species, Titanomyrma lubei, is related to giant ants previously found in German fossils. These long-distance relatives bolster the notion that the climate of the time had hot blips that allowed warmth-loving giant insects to spread from continent to continent, Archibald and a U.S.-Canada team propose online May 4 in the Proceedings of the Royal Society B...."

Those "hot blips" were fairly long periods of time in comparison with, say, the production run of television series like 2007's Quarterlife. On a geological scale, though - not so much.

These big ants, by the way, aren't all that old. They lived, the article says, about 49,500,000 years back - practically 'recent,' compared to the 300,000,000-year-old dragonflies with two-and-a-half-foot wingspans. Ah, those were the 'good old days.' (November 3, 2010)

Back to the article.

Tennessee's Ancient Ant: Big, But Not Biggest

"...An ancient ant wing from Tennessee had hinted that big ants lived in North America during this time, says Torsten Wappler of the University of Bonn in Germany. 'But complete preserved specimens were not known until Bruce came up with this beautiful preserved fossil.'

"The new fossil caught Archibald's eye as he and co-author Kirk Johnson poked around storage drawers at the Denver Museum of Nature & Science, where Johnson works. The spookiest thing about the Wyoming ant may be that even at 5.1 centimeters [2 inches] long, she is not the largest ant ever found. A German specimen is slightly longer, as are queens of a living African driver ant, Dorylus wilverthi.

"Although ants overall trend toward greater size in cooler places, Archibald notes that the eight largest living species dwell mostly in the tropics. The team looked at climate reconstructions for the fossil species and found hot spots where the ancient giants lived as well.

"For a tropical lineage to have sprawled between continents meant taking ancient land bridges through Greenland or Iceland. During much of the ants' time those northern routes were merely temperate. But brief hot spells were possible, Archibald and his colleagues say.

"Climate scientists have already suggested there were several around 50 million years ago. One, for example, lasted about 170,000 years...."
(Wired Science)

Once again: one of those "hot spells" lasted around 170,000 years. The article doesn't say whose fault they were. Or, indeed, if they were anybody's fault. And the Lemming's ranted about that before:

• "Lemming Tracks: 'My Mind's Made Up, Don't Confuse Me With the Facts;' and Climate Change"
  (April 5, 2011)

The Lemming notes that, big as that Tennessee fossil ant is - a living species is bigger. Still: That's one big ant.

What's more puzzling, apparently, are fossil critters like "hippo predecessors, tropical plankton and pollen from tropical palms" found in a region that should be distinctly arctic in some ways. "...'The major challenge is to explain how a region that does not receive sunlight for six months keeps from freezing its giant ants and other creatures that don't tolerate frost.'..." (the Netherlands's Utrecht University's Appy Sluijs)

As the Lemming's said before, when observations back up established and/or common-sense ideas - that's great. When observations just don't add up - and can't be dismissed - - - even better! That means there's something new to learn.

Sort-of-related posts:

• "Eight-Foot Sea Scorpion: Big Claws; Sharp Spines; Weak; Clumsy"
  (January 4, 2011)
• "Very Old, Quite Small, Lamprey: A Big Deal for Scientists"
  (November 3, 2010)
• "Really Big Dragonflies: Oxygen's What Does It"
  (November 3, 2010)
• "Every Wondered About Trilobites? Have I Got a Micro-Review for You!"
  (November 12, 2009)
• "Trilobites, Arthropods, Evolution, and Why Mothra Isn't Real"
  (October 17, 2009)

Hellgrammite: A Lake, a Character, and a - Thing

"Hellgrammite (Dobsonfly Larvae) (Corydalus cornutus)"
Texas Parks and Wildlife

"Other Names
"Eastern Dobsonfly

"Description
"Hellgrammites grow to a length of 2.75 inches (7 cm). They have yellowish to brown, stout, segmented, caterpillar-like bodies, large pinching mandibles, six legs on the thorax, eight feathery appendages on the abdomen, and four claws at the rear of their abdomen.

"Life History
"Hellgrammites consume aquatic insects and small invertebrates, and are eaten by fish, frogs, other aquatic predators. They are nocturnal (active at night). Hellgrammites are also poor swimmers, but voracious predators. To catch prey, they hide under large rocks and other shelter in fast flowing stretches of streams, creeks and small rivers and attack prey as it swims or crawls past.

"It can take up to three years before they reach sexual maturity. Mating begins immediately after emergence from the pupae stage as dobsonflies, from April through May. Up to 3,000 eggs are contained in each egg mass. Eggs are produced from May through August. Females lay circular egg masses at night on rocks, leaves, trees, bridges and other suitable sites that hang over water. When the egg masses dry, they look chalky and white...."

Hellgrammite is also the name of a lake in California, and a character in DC Comics.

This post emerged when the Lemming remembered Pootwaddle, a character - and a brand of cigarettes - played by members of Spike Jones' City Slickers: which is another topic. Topics.

Vaguely-related posts:

• " 'Terribly Hairy Fly" of Kenya: "Like a Spider With Hairy Legs' "
  (December 11, 2010)
• "Really Big Dragonflies: Oxygen's What Does It"
  (November 3, 2010)
• "Trilobites, Arthropods, Evolution, and Why Mothra Isn't Real"
  (October 17, 2009)
• "Organized Forces Defoliating Amazon Rainforest: And They Ain't Human!"
  (June 7, 2009)
• "Boxelder Bugs"
  (February 21, 2008)

More:

• "Dobsonfly"
  AgriLIFE Extension, Texas A & M

"Terribly Hairy Fly" of Kenya: "Like a Spider With Hairy Legs"

"Africa's 'terrible hairy fly' found in Kenya"
Science, Reuters (December 8, 2010)

"Scientists in Kenya have located one of the world's rarest and oddest-looking flies after a long hunt for an insect dubbed the "terrible hairy fly," experts said on Wednesday.

"Scientists first stumbled across the yellow-haired fly in 1933 and then again in 1948. Since then, at least half a dozen expeditions have visited a site between the towns of Thika and Garissa to find it again.

"At about one centimeter long and so far found on a single 20-meter high rock, the Mormotomyia hirsuta looks more like a spider with its hairy legs, scientists said....

The critter can't fly, has tiny eyes, and probably lives only in a bat-infested recess of that rock in the Ukazi Hills. Someone speculates that it might use its long legs to hitch a ride on a passing bat - but nobody's seen that happen.

Odds are that this thing is the only fly that's found only in Africa.

Somehow, the Lemming suspects that it won't get featured on travel posters. That's one ugly fly.

It's interesting, though - to folks who study flies. One question is how this little critter developed. And that's another topic.

Reuters posted a photo of Kenya's unique - thing.


(from Reuters/International Center of Insect Physiology and Ecology/Handout, used w/o permission)

Sort-of-related posts:

• "Really Big Dragonflies: Oxygen's What Does It"
  (November 3, 2010)
• "Trilobites, Arthropods, Evolution, and Why Mothra Isn't Real"
  (October 17, 2009)
• "Organized Forces Defoliating Amazon Rainforest: And They Ain't Human!"
  (June 7, 2009)
• "Bumblebee Flight: New Study, New Data, New Questions"
  (May 12, 2009)
• "Boxelder Bugs"
  (February 21, 2008)

Like this post? Tweet it: Tweet Or, not: your choice.

Really Big Dragonflies: Oxygen's What Does It

"High Oxygen Levels Spawn Monster Dragonflies"
Wired Science, Wired (November 2, 2010)

"Biologists have grown super-size dragonflies that are 15 percent larger than normal by raising the insects, from start to finish, in chambers emulating Earth's oxygen conditions 300 million years ago.

"The research, presented Nov. 1 at the Geophysical Society of America's annual meeting in Denver, Colorado, provides more support to the idea that big ancient animals and high-oxygen concentrations weren't coincidental. It may also offer an instrument to help gauge Earth's ancient atmospheric conditions.

" 'No one has been successful growing dragonflies under controlled laboratory conditions before, at least to my knowledge,' said paleobiologist John VandenBrooks of Arizona State University, leader of the work. 'This has allowed us to ask the question, "how have oxygen levels through time influenced the evolution of insects?" '

"During the Paleozoic era, around 300 million years ago, huge dragonflies zipped around with wingspans stretching more than two and a half feet, dwarfing modern relatives. Back then, however, the planet’s atmosphere had roughly 50 percent more oxygen than today...."

So far, the scientists have learned that dragonflies and beetles grow faster and get bigger in high-oxygen environments, while cockroaches grow more slowly and don't get bigger. All the insects grow smaller breathing tubes when they grew in a high-oxygen atmosphere. The smaller breathing tubes make sense, since the critters don't need today's big tubes to get oxygen in when there's plenty around - but the scientists don't know why dragonflies and beetles get bigger and cockroaches don't.

For paleontologists and other folks who study what's happened on Earth for the last few billion years, this research is important. If they can correlate oxygen levels with some feature on insects - ones that haven't changed all that much for the last few hundred million years - they'll be able to work out how much oxygen was around, by observing structures like breathing tubes on insects caught in amber.

The Lemming finds that sort of thing fascinating.

Your experience, as I've said before, may vary.

Related posts:

• "Ecological Disaster - a Third of a Billion Years Ago"
  (October 1, 2010)
• " 'Snowball Earth,' Evolution, and Really Old Rocks"
  (March 16, 2010)
• "Trilobites, Arthropods, Evolution, and Why Mothra Isn't Real"
  (October 17, 2009)
• "Origins of Life, a Virtual Ocean, and a Million Computers"
  (July 3, 2009)

Record Mosquito Catch in Taiwan

"Taiwanese woman catches 4 million mosquitoes"
Breitbart (August 2, 2010)

"A Taiwanese woman has taken a sizeable bite out of Taiwan's mosquito population, and won a 3,000 US dollar cash prize, by catching around 4 million of the bloodsuckers in just one month.

"Huang Yu-yen, from southern Taiwan's Yunlin county, beat 72 rivals with a catch weighing in at more than 1.5 kilogrammes (3lbs 5oz), competition organisers Imbictus International, a company that makes insect traps, said...."

Over three and a quarter pounds? That's a lot of mosquitoes! Nice to know that Minnesota isn't the only place - blessed? - with such pests.

The article points out, on a more serious note, that mosquitoes have been a serious health problem in Taiwan, until a mid-sixties eradication program. And that they still carry dengue fever: definitely not by popular demand.

Summer of the Mosquito

"Epic Spring Rains Spawn Mosquito Emergency"
FOXNews (May 31, 2010)

"Summer's back . . . and so are the unwelcome guests everyone dreads.

"The never-ending spring rainstorms that drenched the East Coast in March, and the hot days that followed in April, were the perfect storm for mosquitoes, say experts, breeding millions of bloodsuckers that came early and could stay for the season.

" 'As of right now, it's really ramping up in a big way in the Northeast, as it is down here in the Southeast where I am in Florida,' said Joe Conlon, technical adviser with the American Mosquito Control Association...."

There's the usual advice - change the water in birdbaths regularly, don't use perfume, avoid open-toed shoes, that sort of thing. There's also a link to CDC-Approved repellants.

The article doesn't mention Minnesota - not once. As a resident of this happy home for invertebrate bloodsuckers, I'm either miffed at the snub - or delighted that someone didn't make the obligatory crack about the mosquito being Minnesota's state bird. Drat. I did it myself.

There's also a couple of slideshows - including one with a 'way-too-closeup of a mosquito.

Trilobites, Arthropods, Evolution, and Why Mothra Isn't Real

"Trilobites: Extinct, but not a failure"
The Arthropod Story, Understanding Evolution, University of California, Berkeley

"The trilobites may have gone extinct (along with 95% of marine species) during the mass extinction at the end of the Permian period, but that doesn’t mean that they were a failure. On the contrary, the trilobites survived for more than 250 million years (longer than the dinosaurs), and dominated seafloor ecosystems for much of this time...."

This page is in the middle of the longer "Arthropod Story" section of Berkeley's online (tutorial, I suppose) about evolution. Navigation's quite intuitive (for me), the pages are well-designed with animations and branching links limited to concepts that actually require them.

In short, a well-designed page in a well-designed website.

Quite a few pages beyond this one, there's a pretty good set of examples that gets the idea of square-cube limitations on structures. That's the reason that fifty-foot tarantulas and King Kong are fine fantasies, but wouldn't work in the real world. Not as shown, anyway.

As I went along, I saw a pretty good discussion of why the respiratory and circulatory systems of spiders and crabs makes it easier for them to be large than it is for insects. And one of the better discussions of how we think evolutionary adaptation works.

---

Isn't Evolution the Work of the Devil or Something?

When (and where, I suspect) I was growing up, a frightfully 'religious' subculture was having fits about evolution - when they weren't using numerology to find connections between the Bible and the Soviet Union's military inventory.

From what I still run into, now and again, it looks like the loyal acolytes of Ussher are still around. And people who are convinced that Earth is flat.¹ They're not necessarily the same people, though.

Anyway, if you listen to the right (or wrong, depending on your point of view) people: Christianity is a psychiatric condition, characterized by chronic breaks with reality and a marked aversion to systematic investigations of nature. If my memory serves, Freud and Marx had views similar to that.

Me? I'm one of those benighted dupes of the Whore of Babylon: a practicing Catholic.

There are Catholics who are convinced that evolution is some kinda plot, the work of the devil, and/or utterly nasty. But that's not a teaching of the Church.

Let's put it this way: St. Albert the Great is the patron saint of scientists and Gregor Mendel was a Catholic monk. (Mendel is the dude who got genetics going as a science - although I don't know if he's mentioned much these days.)

I touched on Catholic views of reason, science, and reality; and contemporary Western culture's preferences; in another blog:

• "Faith and Reason, Religion and Science"
  A Catholic Citizen in America (March 20, 2009)
• "Catholic Church, Creationism, Evolution, Facts and Faith"
  A Catholic Citizen in America (March 5, 2009)

That Doesn't Sound Very Apathetic: What Gives?

The Lemming is "apathetic" only in that I don't have intense, obsessive feelings about the culturally-normative things. I've written about this before.

---

¹ Sadly, the formally-organized Flat Earth Society seems to have broken up around 2001. But there are plenty of people still dedicated to arguing that Earth is flat. (alaska.net/~clund/e_djublonskopf/Flatearthsociety.htm and theflatearthsociety.org, for starters) Some of them, I suspect, are in it for the laughs. Others are quite likely convinced that there's some kinda plot to deceive the masses.

Organized Forces Defoliating Amazon Rainforest: And They Ain't Human!

In every country in the Americas, except Canada and Chile, forces with tight organization and profound commitment to their mission are systematically defoliating the Amazon rain forest, as well as plants and trees in other ecosystems.

They're not human. Literally. They are ants: leafcutter ants.

"The Biogeography of Leaf-Cutter Ants (Atta cephalotes)"
by Airlangga Djajadi, student in Geography 316 (Fall 1999)
Department of Geography, San Francisco State University (Fall, 1999)

"Kingdom: Animalia
"Phylum: Arthropoda
"Class: Insecta
"Order: Hymenoptera
"Family: Formicidae
"Genus: Atta
"Species: Atta cephalotes

"Description of Species

"There are three castes of leaf cutter ants; workers, females, and males (Weber 1972). The workers are females and cannot reproduce eggs that become other workers but can make eggs that produce males (Weber 1972). The role of the female in a leaf cutter ant colony is very important, queens are essential and are part of the female caste structure. Males on the other hand do not work in or out of the colony and are winged to inseminate the virgin queens (Weber 1972)...."

There's quite a bit more: rather informative, if clearly written by a college student fulfilling the requirements of a class.

There's even a sort of rogue's gallery of these pitiless despoilers of the rain forest:


(Weber, via San Francisco State University Department of Geography, used w/o permission)

Leafcutter ants are remarkable creatures, and have a fan who has produced and maintains a more polished website:

"The Guide to Leafcutter or Leafcutting Ants"
A. San Juan

"Leafcutter ants (Atta, Acromyrmex) represent the pinnacle of social and technological expression in ants. Not only are they the only animals (other than humans) that cultivate their own food from fresh vegetation, but they also use sophisticated antibiotics against fungal pests in their gardens!..."

"...I've been studying leafcutters since 2001, and I invite you to contribute to our knowledge of these absolutely fascinating animals. So please join me and learn more by exploring the many notes, images, movies, and other information on leaf cutter ants in this site!..."

Never mind the impression of breathless enthusiasm given by those exclamation marks: A. San Juan seems to know his facts - and has put together a rather impressive website. His site has workable navigation, and is divided into sections: including an impressive array of photos from various sources, and - for those whose life would not be complete if they did not have their own leafcutter ant colony - a section entitled "Care and maintenance of Leafcutter ants."

Much, if not all, of the site is in English and en Español (sorry: there's quite a bit to this, and I didn't check every page).

For the rest of us, who may have an attitude toward leafcutter ants which is at best ambivalent, Orkin has a page on the critters:

"Harvester Ant"
Orkin

"The common species of harvester ants - the Red, Western, and California harvester ants each have unique behaviors, castes and tasks, feeding, nesting patterns and defense mechanisms. The harvester ant behavior differs between each species, seen through their feeding and nesting habits. In addition, unlike other ants that infest indoor structures, all species of harvest ants prefer not to invade houses and buildings, but will establish their nests around gardens or yards, often destroying vegetation.

"The red harvester ants can be aggressive. They give out a painful sting. Sometimes, the stings of red harvest ants can cause allergic reactions, especially to those sensitive to their venom. Aside from their powerful stings, the red harvester ant also bites viciously. However, due to the competition for food with the ferocious red fire ants, the population of red harvester ants appears to be declining...."

Wait a minute! This post started out with leafcutter ants, and now I spring "harvester ants" on you, the reader?!

Orkin explains:

"...Leafcutter ants also have been considered harvester ants. They exhibit high degrees of polymorphism with castes including the minims, mediae, minors and majors. They are divided based on their size to perform different tasks. For instance, the majors are considered the leafcutter ant soldiers, while the mediae are known as the foragers of food. The minims tend their fungus gardens, while the minors guard the nest from predators. Leafcutter ants, particularly the majors, are strong enough to cut through leather...."

You'll have to go back to the San Francisco U. paper for more detail on those "high degrees of polymorphism with castes including the minims, mediae, minors and majors." I did, but I'll freely admit that not everybody is quite as interested in polymorphic ants as I am.

Bumblebee Flight: New Study, New Data, New Questions

"Flight Of The Bumble Bee Is Based More On Brute Force Than Aerodynamic Efficiency"
ScienceDaily (May 10, 2009)

"Brute force rather than aerodynamic efficiency is the key to bumblebee flight, Oxford University scientists have discovered.

"In recent years scientists have modelled how insect wings interact with the air around them to generate lift by using computational models that are relatively simple, often simplifying the motion or shape of the wings.

" 'We decided to go back to the insect itself and use smoke, a wind tunnel and high-speed cameras to observe in detail how real bumblebee wings work in free flight,' said Dr Richard Bomphrey of the Department of Zoology...."

Turns out, the bumblebee is monumentally inefficient at flying.

This is a pretty good look at today's bumblebee research.

That old saw about bumblebees not being able to fly? That's sort of true, almost. An aerodynamic theory of 1918-19, scaled down to bumblebee size, showed that bumblebee wings were too small to provide the needed lift. That was 15 years after the Wright Brothers' first flight. Quite a bit has happened since then.

Ladybugs, Lady Beetles, Asian Beetles, Asian Lady Beetles: At Least Aphids are Aphids

I've read about ladybugs, lady beetles, Asian lady beetles, and Asian beetles, for some time now. There seems to be some confusion about what beetles are called what. I still don't know for sure, but here are some online resources, by people who should know what they're writing about.

"The Multi-colored Asian Ladybeetle"
Michigan State University, MSU Extension, MSU Dept of Entomology, the Michigan Dept of Agriculture, and the MSU Integrated Pest Management Program

"A good bug with some bad habits
"The multi-colored Asian lady beetle is a native of Asia, and like many exotic species, has readily adapted to climates and habitats in the U.S. As with most lady beetles, it is a highly beneficial predator of insect pests, especially aphids. Asian lady beetles can create trouble when large numbers enter buildings or feed on late season fruit crops...."

"LADYBUGS"
University of Kentucky College of Agriculture Entomology

"Ladybugs, also called lady beetles or ladybird beetles, are a very beneficial group. They are natural enemies of many insects, especially aphids and other sap feeders. A single lady beetle may eat as many as 5,000 aphids in its lifetime. Many species of lady beetles are present in Kentucky and they are common in most habitats...."

The Schmidt Sting Pain Index: Quantifying Insect-Induced Agony

"Bzzzzzzz"
Futility Closet (December 17, 2005)

"After he'd been stung by almost everything, entomologist Justin O. Schmidt created the Schmidt Sting Pain Index, a four-point scale comparing the overall pain of insect stings:

"* 1.0 - Sweat bee: 'Light, ephemeral, almost fruity. A tiny spark has singed a single hair on your arm.'..."

Nine data points are listed, running a gamut through "...2.0 - Yellowjacket: 'Hot and smoky, almost irreverent. Imagine W.C. Fields extinguishing a cigar on your tongue.'..." to "...4.0+ - Bullet ant: 'Pure, intense, brilliant pain. Like walking over flaming charcoal with a 3-inch nail in your heel.' "

Seven Really Big Bugs

Update (February 27, 2011)
This page, http://patriciaholdenmd.com/insects/7-largest-insects-and-crawlers, is no longer available. The URL now leads to a 'squatter' page. Pity, that.

---

"7 Largest Insects and Crawlers"
Patricia Holden MD|travel and medicine (undated, probably very early June 2008)

"I was reorganizing and redesigning my daughter’s room this weekend when I found a widow spider in one of the boxes that were left in her room. My daughter, scared of insects, held on to me while I tried to capture the spider and throw it outside. ..."

What follows is why it's a good idea to handle a widow spider carefully, if at all. And, descriptions of seven really big things with exoskeletons, with photos.

Happily, some of the photos have a person's hand or arm in the frame, to give an idea of how big the insects (and insect-like critters) are.

Pigs Better Than Pesticides

"Apple Farmer Finds Pigs Work Better Than Pesticides" FOXNews (March 05, 2008)

"As part of a research experiment believed to be among the first of its kind, Koan is using pigs to help protect his fruit from the plum curculio, a tiny insect that is among the most destructive apple pests."

Boxelder Bugs

"Boxelder Bugs"
University of Minnesota Extension

The identification, importance, biology and life cycle, and management of these insects.